An Eddie House trey (which kinda looked like a two from my viewpoint) and a Rajon Rondo steal and breakaway dunk cut the lead to 81-71 with 10:10 remaining in the game.
Again, do the C’s have it in them? After seven brutal games?
Rondo appears to have awoken from his daze. He looked like he was in a fog or something in the third quarter. Strange.
The crowd is ready to explode. A few more buckets and the roof’s gonna blow off.
Orlando has a 54-36 lead. Glen Davis (8 points) has been OK. Paul Pierce scored seven points and Stephon Marbury — of all people — has eight, but Boston looks godawful.
The Celtics are shooting 39.5 percent and Orlando is at 52.4 percent. Rashard Lewis is leading the way with 14 points for the Magic, who went on a massive 24-6 run to end the second quarter.
Dwight Howard has nine points and 10 boards.
If the tired C’s don’t put forth effort early in the third, they may concede this one well before the final buzzer…
Less than a minute into the game, Big Baby Davis has already drawn a charge on Dwight Howard. Couple more of those and Baby’ll be the hero of Game 1. Howard has one bucket so far but Kendrick Perkins is battling him hard. Perk already has a block of Howard.
Four minutes in it’s 4-4. This could be an ugly one.
Doc Rivers doesn’t want the Celtics to over think anything tonight.
As is usually the case, Doc delivered a few good lines. Prepare for the Magic? Rivers chose rest instead. Right now, after a seven-game series, there’s a battle between (in his words) brains and legs. Even if there’s work to be done, “I’m taking their legs,” he said.
The C’s are struggling out there. Chicago leads 53-44 at the break, Paul Pierce has been nonexistent so far. The 2008 NBA finals MVP has four points on 1 of 4 from the floor. Ray Allen has four points on 1 of 7 from the floor.
Pierce, obviously shouldn’t be counted out. Maybe he’s just pacing himself. Boston needs a heavy dose of him in the second half. And Rajon Rondo must do a better job on Derrick Rose, who has looked every bit like a No. 1 overall pick. The up-and-coming point guard has a game-high 13 points.
Boston is only at 39.1 percent from the floor. The C’s need offense, fast. Pierce is the man to deliver it.
Kevin Garnett may be out, but don’t expect the crowd to be any less pumped up. A green Adidas “Boston is a brotherhood” T-shirt is on every chair. The place should look pretty cool on TV. Green out, green party, whatever you want to call it.
Doc Rivers said it best about the week’s events: “It’s been more hectic than usual.”
Danny Ainge had a minor heart attack. KG is likely out for the playoffs.
I guess the only true positive to sprout from KG’s absence is that the pressure’s off. OK maybe not in the first round, in which they should take care of business, but beyond. Everything after beating the Bulls would be gravy. Not that Chicago’s a pushover either.
Rose, Thomas, Noah, Miller, that’s a lot of talent.
And speaking of Joakim Noah, he’s gotta be the only NBA player to endorse Le Coq Sportif sneakers. Do they even sell those in America? I thought that brand was just for 80s tennis players like his father Yannick. Anyway, please let me know if you (or anyone else) has the Joakim Noah model Le Coq Sportifs…
Quiet around here. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen won’t be playing in tonight’s regular season finale. Rajon Rondo will see limited action. No shocker there.
Kevin Garnett’s status for the playoffs remains in the same ambiguous place.
“He’ll play,” coach Doc Rivers said.
But, he hedged that bet with this statement:
“If we don’t like what we see (at practice Thursday), he won’t. We don’t know how it’s going to turn out tomorrow.”
That’s the bit of (no) news for the evening.
Allen addressed his one-game suspension for elbowing Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao , um, where the sun don’t shine.
“I was upset. I needed an explanation,” he said. “I talked to NBA discipline guru Stu Jackson and really didn’t give me a great explanation, at least one I thought rationalized why I was suspended.”
Allen essentially said he was just protecting himself. Although he was docked $170K — yeesh, that’s one game’s pay? — it’s kind of a moot point by now.
The C’s will know their first-round opponent by the end of the evening…